Cabinet for calculating machines and the like



Nov. 26, 1940. E. R. WATKINS CABINET FOR CALCULATING MACHINES AND THELIKE Filed April 27, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I .JI.

za II] INVENTOR .M 75? wwwj/ Nov. 26, 1940. E. R. WATKINS 2 CABINET FORCALCULATING MACHINES AND THE LIKE Filed April 27, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR Patented Nov. 26, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CABINET FORCALCULATING MACHINES AND THE LIKE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to cabinets or cells within which calculatingmachines, posting machines, and other such like machines, may beenclosed and acoustically isolated, to the end that in counting-roomsand other places wheie machines of such sort are installed and operatedthe noise of operation shall be deadened, and the operator of themachine and the operators of other machines installed in the same roomand other persons engaged in business in the room shall be relievedconsciously and unconsciously of the annoyance that the noise ofoperation of such machines otherwise and inevitably produces.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. I is a view in perspective of acabinet of theinvention. Fig.1I is a view in horizontalsection,on theplane approximately indicated by the line 11-11, Fig. I. Fig. III is adiagrammatic view in plan of an assembly in a counting-room of aplurality of cabinets, and in it a further feature of the invention isshown. Fig. IV is a view to larger scale, showing in detail thewall-structure that I have found adequate and serviceable to achieve theends in view. Flg. V is a view corresponding to Fig. II 25 and showingan alternative arrangement. Fig. VI is a view corresponding to Fig. Iand showing additional adaptation.

I shall in the ensuing description allude to the posting machine as theparticular machine in adaptation to which the cabinet of the inventionhas been developed. It will be manifest in the sequel that it isapplicable to all machines of the general sort that involve theessential elements of a typewriter: namely, a set of types that, driven35 in response to the pressure of keys in a keyboard, strike hammer-likeblows upon a record sheet mounted on a platen (ordinarily of cylindricalshape). It is, for example, applicable to calculating machines, postingmachines, addressing machines, plate cutting and printing machines,punch card tabulating machines. The clatter of such machines inoperation is familiar to all. In a room where a considerable number ofsuch machines are in simultaneous operation, as is 45 common in bankinghouses, the cumulative din is both an annoyance and a burden upon thephysical powers of operators and others engaged in business there, andin effect a drain upon the nervous endurance of all concerned. The noise50 tends to cause loss both in efllciency and in accuracy.

A posting machine may be characterized as an enlarged and elaboratedtypewriter. It is mounted on a frame and stands upon four legs upon the66 floor oi the counting-room.

The cabinet of my invention is box-like and stands independently uponlegs on the countingroom floor. It includes a rear wall i and, integralwith and continuous with the rear wall. it includes an overarching hood2, and side walls 3. The side 5 walls are continued in forwardlyextending wings 4. Additionally, the cabinet includes a floor plate 5, asplash-apron Ii, and it stands upon legs 1.

The sources of noise in machine operation lie in and near the platen.The rear wall i of the cabinet extends opposite all the sources of soundin the machine and is extended sufliciently to allow for free andnecessary play of all moving parts of the machine. The overarching hood2 extends forwardly over and beyond the sources of noise, leaving thekeyboard of the machine exposed to the free vision of the operator whenseated before the machine. I have found the forward rim of the hood asuitable location for an electric lamp 8 that, concealed from the seatedoperator, brightly illumines the keyboard of the machine and theadjacent work to which in the act of posting the operator makesreference. This lamp carried by the cabinet that stands independently onthe floor is free of the vibration to which it would be subject, were itcarried on the standard of the machine itself.

The side walls 3 flank the machine on either side, and particularly theportion whence noise chiefly proceeds. The wings 4 converge beneath thewider space required for carriage travel, and at their forward edgesdefine a space of suiiicient width to allow the application of thecabinet to and its removal from the machine. And, since these machinesare various in their particular adaptations and correspondingly variousin dimensions, I build particular cabinets with wings suited inangularity and extent to the particular spacing desired. The convergenceof the wings 4 permits the arrangement of trays of record cards, forexample, nearer to and within'the range of easier vision of the operatorof the machine; and such nearer arrangement makes for accuracy and speedin reading and recording.

The floor plate 5 is slotted at 9, 9 with slots that extend from theforward edge rearwardly. Their spacing and depth are such as to allowapplication of the cabinet to the machine and the advance of thecabinet, until it properly surrounds the machine. The iloor plate 5 isremovable, to the end that floor plates with differently spaced slotsmay be alternatively applied, suiting the cabinet to assembly with onemachine and another of dlflerent dimensions.

The apron-plate or splash-plate 6 is removably set between the forwardedges of the wings l, 4 and extends from the forward edge of the floor.plate 5 upwardly. It serves both as a screen to cut off sound waves andas a shield, protecting the 5 clothing of the operator from such smallsplashing of lubricating oil as may at times be incident to machineoperation.

In Fig. V I show an alternative form of fioor plate. The plate 50 isslotted from its forward edge rearwardly; but, instead of two narrowslots (the slots 9, Fig. II), a single slot at is provided, ofsufficient width to take over the standard of the machine to whichapplication is made; and a supplementary plate 5| is provided, which isapplicable to the floor plate 50, to close the space 90 after thecabinet has been assembled with a machine. I

In Fig. VI I show such a cabinet as I have described with the additionof posting trays i5 and I6 mounted externallyupon it, and adapted tosupport the records with which the operator of a posting machine has todo. These trays, so attached to the cabinet that stands firm upon thefloor, do not vibrate under jar of machine operation, and consequentlythe operation of posting is facilitated. I

Thus the cabinet is seen to be a box that surrounds the posting machine,provided with a window through which the operator has free view of andfree access to the keyboard and free access to the machine for allordinary usage. When the machine is in need of further attention thecabinet may readily be removed from it, and, when attention has beengiven; may readily be replaced.

The walls of the cabinet are formed throughout, excepting only thecoping or edge-plate ID of the hood 2, behind which the lights 8 arescreened, of compound sound-absorbing structure. This edge plate isadvantageously formed of a single web of press-wood. Elsewhere'the wallstructure is conveniently that particularly shown in Fig. IV. Itconsists of an outer web ll of tempered press-wood, continuous andimperforate, a lining l2 of sound-deadening bulky material, suchforexample as glass wool, glued to the inner face of web II and held inplace by cord l3 laced or netted over it, and a covering H of cloth.Manifestly the outer web H might be of sheet metal or of ply-wood (asmight also be the coping- IU of the hood) the sound-dead: ening liningmight be of asbestos wool or oi cotton wool or of other material of likesound deadening property, and it might be otherwise secured, as byworking it into the condition of plaster and shaping and hardening it insitu. As for the covering l4, it need only be such as to afford theslight protection needed. to be sufficiently durable, and to present asmooth and trim and agreeable appearance.

In the use of such a cabinet I have found that objectionable noise isadequately controlled. It is the higher sound vibrations chiefly thatare dampened and suppressed. Such diffused noise as inevitably findsexit is small in quantity and less disturbing in pitch.

The provision of lights within the hood makes possible adequate lightingand renders dispensable the goose-neck light fixtures that ordio narilyform part of such equipment.

The relief of the operators in the matter of nervous fatigue makes foraccuracy, speed, and

collocation of two cabinet-encased machines, 2| and 22. Before each anoperators chair 23, 24 is shown to be placed, and behind each chair is ascreen 25, 26. The screens will be seen to be of relatively wide extent.They are of sound- 5 deadening construction, conveniently such inessence as that illustrated in Fig. IV (although it would be better thatboth surfaces of the screen be of the relatively rigid press-wood H).While it is true that the body of the operator seated at 10 a machine isin some degree a screen, cutting of! the sound waves that emerge throughthe window, it is immediately apparent that a screen such as the screens25 and 26 of Fig. III, of di-.

mensions such as those indicated and placed as 15 shown, will be vastlymore effective than the body of the operator alone. And it will furtherbe apparent that if, immediately behind the operator seated before amachine in cabinet 2i, instead of a second machine, there were a sound-20 reflecting wall, the interposition of such a screen as 25 betweenmachine in cabinet 2| and the wall would have effect, very substantiallyto reduce the volume of noise in the room in which the machine isplaced.

I claim as my invention:

1. A sound-proof cabinet for a posting machine or the like that is borneupon a standard, the said cabinet being adapted to rest independently-onthe floor upon which the standard 39 of the machine also rests, andincluding a soundabsorbing rear wall prolonged in an over-arching hood,and a sound-absorbing fioor panel that extends forwardly from the rearwall and that is slotted from the forward edge rearwardly, 35 adaptingthe cabinet to assembly with and removal from the machine, the saidfloor in the assembly extending beneath and free of contact with theencased machine.

2. A sound-proof cabinet for a posting ma- 4 chine or the like that isborne upon, a standard, the said cabinet being adapted to rest independsently on the floor upon which the standard of the machine also rests,and including a soundabsorbing rear wall prolonged in an over-arch- 5ing hood, sound absorbing side walls extending forwardly from the rearwall, a sound-absorbing fioor panel that extends forwardly from the rearwall and that isslotted from its forward edge rearwardly, and asound-absorbing apron panel 50 removably carried between the forwardedges of the side walls and extending from the forward edge of the floorpanel upwardly, the forward edges of hood, side walls and apron paneldefining a window, through which the operator has 55 1 access to amachine when encased by the cabinet.

3. A sound-proof cabinet for a posting machine or the like that is borneupon a standard, the said cabinet being adapted to rest independgo entlyon the floor upon which the standard of the machine also rests, andincluding a soundabsorbing rear wall prolonged in an over-arching hood,sound-absorbing side walls extending forwardly from the rear wall andthemselves 65 provided at their forward edges'with forwardextending andconverging wings, a sound-absorbing floor panel that extends forwardlyfrom the rear wall and that is slotted from its forward edge rearwardly,and a sound-absorbing apron panel removably carried between the forwardedges of the converging wings of the side walls.

4. A sound-proof cabinet for a posting machine or the like that is borneupon a standard, 15

the said cabinet being adapted to rest independently on the floor uponwhich the standard of the machine also rests, and including asoundabsorbing rear wall prolonged in an over-arching hood, and asound-absorbing floor panel that extends forwardly from the rear walland that is slotted from its forward edge rearwardly, adapting thecabinet to assembly with and removal from the machine and a. removableclosure 101' the slot in the floor panel, the said floor in the assemblyextending beneath and free of contact with the encased machine.

EDWIN R. WATKINS.

